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The Bruce Matson-LandAmerica saga appears to be coming to an end. The imprisoned former Richmond attorney reached a settlement this week with the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy estate of the long-defunct Henrico-based title insurance company, RichmondBizSense.com reported. Matson, who was LandAmerica’s original bankruptcy trustee, is now serving a four-year federal prison sentence for stealing millions of dollars from the company’s bankruptcy wind-down fund. That crime forced him to relinquish his role as trustee, as the court handed the title over to longtime Richmond attorney Ben Ackerly. In January, as Matson sat in prison, Ackerly filed a lawsuit claiming Matson breached his fiduciary duty to the estate as a result of his crimes and sought a judgment forcing Matson to pay back at least $480,000. That would have been in addition to more than $4 million Matson has already paid back into the LandAmerica trust after his theft was discovered. But this week’s settlement, which awaits the court’s approval, will not result in any additional funds from Matson. Instead, it calls for an end to the suit, for both sides to release any claims against one another and to bar both sides from making any additional related claims against the other in the future — all without Matson paying any more into the LandAmerica trust.

A New York bankruptcy judge on Tuesday transferred the bankruptcy of Prehired LLC to Delaware, ruling that the software sales training company did not have sufficient business ties to New York to file for bankruptcy in the state, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Philip Bentley granted the transfer at the request of Delaware's attorney general, one of several state AGs investigating Prehired for its attempts to collect on payment agreements that allowed students to defer fees for career training. Prehired filed for chapter 11 protection in New York in September, citing students' failure to pay for sales training and state attorney general investigations into its attempt to collect money from former students. Prehired requires its students to pay $30,000 in $500 monthly installments after they land a job in the field of software sales. Delaware Deputy Attorney General Katherine Devanney argued that Prehired's bankruptcy case should be heard in Delaware, where the company is incorporated and where it sued 289 former students who did not make payments after completing Prehired's training. Prehired's attorney Christopher Warren argued that the bankruptcy case should remain in New York because its principal assets are contracts based on New York law. The assets are mostly made up of the Income Share Agreements (ISAs) signed by students, and various claims related to those agreements, according to Prehired.

A federal appeals court upheld the chapter 11 restructuring of Windstream Holdings Inc., finding bondholder complaints about the debt-cutting plan moot because reversing it would mean unwinding transactions that have already taken place, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York backed the telecommunications company’s 2020 restructuring, which put Elliott Management Corp. and other senior creditors in control of the business while wiping out junior bondholders owed roughly $2.4 billion. The appeals court found bondholders’ appeal to be equitably moot because they didn’t do enough to prevent the bankruptcy plan from taking effect. Equitable mootness is a judge-made doctrine that protects chapter 11 plans from being unwound if doing so would affect innocent market participants that relied on it. The bondholder trustee, U.S. Bank NA, used its appeal to argue for limiting the doctrine of equitable mootness, saying it contravenes federal courts’ obligation to exercise jurisdiction over disputes stemming from corporate bankruptcy plans. But the trustee “has not suggested any principled rule by which we should limit the doctrine or determine when its application is overbroad,” the Second Circuit said. “U.S. Bank appears instead to invite us to carve out the facts of this case ad hoc. We must decline this invitation.”

The Buffalo Diocese in its settlement Tuesday with the State Attorney General’s Office made no admissions about covering up for priests who had molested children, but agreed to implement enhanced measures to prevent future sex abuse in parishes and schools, the Buffalo News reported. The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, bans two retired bishops linked to a cover-up of sex abuses from serving in any charitable fiduciary roles in New York, and requires the diocese to follow through for five years on such measures as a program to monitor offending priests. The diocese did not admit to any wrongdoing in the stipulated final order issued by U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams. The 2020 lawsuit accused diocese leaders of protecting more than two dozen priests accused of child sex abuse by not referring their cases to the Vatican for potential removal from the priesthood. It also accused Bishop Richard J. Malone and Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz of misusing charitable assets by supporting priests who they knew had likely sexually abused minors. Malone retired in 2019 under intense criticism over his handling of abuse allegations. Grosz retired a few months later in 2020. Bishop Michael W. Fisher, who succeeded Malone, expressed “deep regret” and acknowledged Tuesday that “those who presented themselves as ministers of God” had defiled their vows and “committed crimes against the most vulnerable.” Fisher also said that survivors of clergy sex abuse were not to blame for the abuse. Abuse survivors expressed skepticism about how much the settlement holds diocese officials accountable.

One fallout from the unexpected bankruptcy of a prominent construction contractor in August has been delays on a long in the works West Village neighborhood redevelopment in Detroit, Crain's Detroit Business reported. In a lawsuit filed on Friday in U.S. Eastern District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court, an affiliate of developer Michael Higgins (more on another case in a hot minute) claims a construction lien that the now defunct Bloomfield Hills-based T.H. Marsh Construction Co. filed this summer seeking $267,000 for alleged unpaid work is hindering financing on his mixed-use redevelopment proposal for the northwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Van Dyke Street. For several years, Higgins has floated reimagining that Jefferson/Van Dyke corner as 42 apartments — 36 across four stories atop a new parking structure, six in a redeveloped carriage house — renting for 50 percent to 120 percent of the Area Median Income, plus about 17,000 square feet of commercial/retail space. Even though some removal of underground storage tanks took place over the summer, the July 27 lien is causing a lender to not authorize construction draw. The lien came less than a month before T.H. Marsh filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on Aug. 22, claiming $50,001-$100,000 in assets and $1,000,001-$10 million in liabilities to 100-199 creditors. A trustee, Mark Shapiro, has been appointed. And the lien, the lawsuit says, was filed long after T.H. Marsh did any sort of work on the project. The lawsuit also says that pre-construction liens are prohibited under state law, and that it was filed well after was legally required.

Bed Bath & Beyond, the beleaguered retail chain that is in the midst of an attempted turnaround, said today that Sue Gove would officially assume the title of chief executive after four months as an interim in the role, the New York Times reported. Gove has been an independent director for the company since May 2019. She became the interim chief after Mark Tritton stepped down and left the company following several quarters of declining sales. The company’s stock has tumbled 65 percent since the start of the year. Now, Gove will assume the task of reviving Bed Bath & Beyond’s fortunes. Following the announcement of a restructuring plan in August, the company is in the process of closing 150 of its big-box stores, from New Jersey to California. Roughly 70 store closures are already underway, and another wave will begin soon. It has laid off employees and, where possible, transferred workers from stores that are closing to others nearby. It is trying to ease some of its supply chain pains by adding a new regional distribution center and working with a third-party company to analyze its network. On Tuesday, the company completed an at-the-market offering program for 12 million shares, and authorized a new $150 million at-the-market offering, in order to increase liquidity. It also has a bond exchange program that it hopes will reduce its debt. In August, the company said that it had taken out more than $500 million in new financing.

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc., a publicly traded heart-disease drug developer, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection weeks after being sued for breach of contract by a Blackstone Inc. portfolio company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The chapter 11 filing follows the breakdown in a three-year partnership between PhaseBio and Blackstone’s SFJ Pharmaceuticals X Ltd. to develop Bentracimab, which helps prevent major bleeding for patients on a blood thinner. PhaseBio said in March there was substantial doubt it could continue as a going concern. After PhaseBio failed to improve on its cash position within six months, SFJ sued two weeks ago, accusing the Malvern, Pa., company of breaching the co-development agreement, according to a filing with the U.S. District Court of Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PhaseBio filed for chapter 11 on Sunday, pressured by the lawsuit. It said in its filings it secured $15 million in loans from JMB Capital Partners to see it through bankruptcy and that it has lined up a strategic buyer to acquire its lead program.